On 4.11.2021 at International Conference ‘Entrepreneurship, Creativity and Managerial Innovation: Creativity and innovation in times of crisis’ Dakhla, Morocco, Accos. Prof. Mila Maeva presented the paper: Left-behind in Bulgaria and crisis management
Paper abstract:
The biggest part of migration researches are focused primarily on the departure, travel, integration and adaptation in the host country. The present paper has another goal, which is aimed at the left-behind families and relatives of the emigrants. It seeks to describe and analyze their coping mechanism with the crisis provoked by migration of family members (especially children) and family separation. Special attention is paid to the situation of the elderly (emigrants` parents) as a vulnerable group and their daily lives. The emergence of new innovation practices such as mutual aid and digital communication as approaches of crisis overcoming will be traced. The focus is put on the changes occurred as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which deepened the family separation due to the lockdowns and border closure. The study is based on ethnographic field materials collected in the period 2020-2021 in different parts of Bulgaria. They present and another new point of view towards elderly parents – as main (especially financial) supporters of their children living abroad in crisis times.